Sens at Land’s End

Another new addition for the Sens today in the person of Jason Smith, most recently seen donning the captain’s C in Philadelphia. Smith has signed to a two-year deal that will pay him $2.6 million per season.

What do we know about Smith? Let’s see:

• He is 34 years old and has played 14 NHL seasons, 9 of which he spent in Canadian markets: he’s used to dealing with the hockey-mad media.
• He’s big: 6′3″, 215 pounds. As seen in the above photo, he also grows a great playoff beard and rocks the classic gap-toothed hockey player smile.
• He was not only the captain in Philadelphia last season, but also in Edmonton for the five previous years. He led the Oilers to the Cup Final in 2006 and, of course, the Flyers to the Eastern Conference Final in 2008.
• He’s got 168 points in 945 career games. A scorer he is not.
• Like Anton Volchenkov, he enjoys throwing his body in front of quickly moving pieces of rubber: he has placed in the top ten in the NHL for blocked shots in each of the last three seasons. In fact, each year he has finished one spot behind Volchenkov (they were 6th and 7th in 2005-2006, 1st and 2nd in 2006-2007, and 2nd and 3rd in 2007-2008). I foresee a good natured rivalry between teammates. Gerber may never even have to contemplate touching a puck when one of these two is on the ice and that’s just good news for everyone.
• Also like Volchenkov, he lacks the ability to feel pain. As I mentioned in my pre-free agent frenzy roundup post, Smith played for the Flyers with two separated shoulders during this year’s playoffs.
• His nickname is Gator. According to NHL.com, this is because he’s a fan of the Florida Gators (the guys they invented Gatorade for!) and not because he devours small animals in a single bite, or performs a move called the “death roll.” Still, it’s a pretty intimidating nickname and by all accounts he can be a very intimidating guy.

Hmm. Low point totals, shot blocking, hitting, intimidating personality … I guess we won’t get him mixed up with our other Jason S. (I say it with love.)

I really like this signing. Those who don’t will no doubt argue that the Sens’ more pressing need is for the mythical puck-moving defenceman, but I stand by my previously expressed opinion that the team needs to be much more solid defensively if it’s going to have any chance of keeping the puck out of its own net. Smith provides some stability back there for a pretty reasonable price, and this signing has allowed me to upgrade my rating of the Sens’ defensive corps from Incredibly Frightening to Actually Not Bad.

Smith also fits well in with the locker room revamp and Bryan Murray’s Plan Upstanding Young(ish) Men. See how Murray describes Smith:

“This is the ultimate character guy that was out on the free-agent market,” said Murray. “He’s been a captain, as we know, but more importantly, he’s just a guy that competes every night. He blocks shots, he hits people, he plays the game in a hard way and he’s very difficult to play against.”

Not just a guy with character: the ultimate character guy. Gritty. Hardworking. Tough to play against. And apparently not afraid to bitchslap a teammate if he’s behaving badly:

“Whatever you can bring to the team to help the team do well is what you need to do, whether that’s yell and scream or sometimes guys just need a pat on the back,” said Smith.

“There’s different situations,” he added. “There’s a lot of things needed to be dealt with amongst the players in the dressing room. Every situation is different. I think when a dressing room is functional and the guys are working hard and playing hard, a lot of that stuff keeps itself straightened out and you don’t have to really deal with that.”

Looking at Murray’s two new free agent signings, we start to see another aspect of the GM’s vision for the team taking shape as well. We’ve got Jason Smith, hard-hitting and “difficult to play against,” and Jarkko Ruutu, possibly the second most annoying person ever to put on skates. These Sens aren’t going to make it easy for anyone to beat them. No, in fact they’re going to be pretty badass, if Bryan Murray has his way.